This Billionaire Carlyle Group Co-Founder Is Donating $7.5 Million To Fix The Washington Monument

Billionaire history buff and Carlyle Group co-founder David
Rubenstein has agreed to chip in $7.5 million to help repair the
damage the Washington Monument suffered in the August
earthquake that shook the region.

Congress had already allocated $7.5 million to the task, and
expected an equal amount to be raised privately,
the AP explains;
Rubenstein says he felt inspired to pick up the entire remaining
tab "as a good citizen."

"What greater symbol is there in Washington of our country?"
reflects Rubenstein, who last month donated $4.5 million to save
the National Zoo's giant panda program, and earlier last year
gave $13.5 million to the National Archives (which next month
will debut a $21 million copy of the Magna Carta purchased by,
yep, Rubenstein).

"I am committed to philanthropy," he tells the Washington Post. And public-private
partnerships like this one "are a good thing ... because the
government doesn't have all the money that it used to have."